Applying system genetics to decipher how plants make sense of multiple environmental cues
Plants are essential for human nutrition. However, lately, the stagnating yield of crops has been failing to keep pace with the demands of a growing global population (estimated 9.5 billion persons by 2050). This will likely create a food shortage by the mid-21st century for most of humanity. Therefore, it is imperative that crop production is increased. There are two potential options: (i) increasing land area for growing more crops , or (ii) making crop production more efficient. Converting more land is not a feasible solution because the amount of agricultural land is quite limited for current agricultural practices. Practices to increase crop yield became prominent during the first Green Revolution, which involved a high use of fertilizers and irrigation combined with the selection of new stress-resistant varieties that were highly responsive to these fertilizers. This agronomic practice, however, is no longer viable due to the exhaustion of raw materials (such as phosphorus rock) and their deleterious environmental impact. Thus, there is a renewed focus on producing more food with fewer nutrients and water input. Notably, how plants cope with limited nutrients while maintaining their biological functions, such as photosynthesis, remains to be elucidated at the molecular, physiological, and ecological levels. This is an important question that the lab is working to address.
Phosphorus is a major macronutrient required for crop production. However, existing crop varieties use less than one-third of applied phosphate fertilizer. Also, there is a risk of a phosphorus crisis, as the worldwide reserves are expected to run out in a few decades. It is, thus, imperative to develop crop varieties that are resilient to phosphate deficiency. My lab is currently investigating how plants regulate phosphate nutrition, aiming to design strategies to develop new crop varieties with efficient phosphate use.
The availability of phosphate in the soil is heterogeneous. Likewise, other nutrients such as nitrogen, zinc, or iron result in combined nutrient stress for the plants. My lab studies how plants respond to multiple nutrient stresses. Solving the mystery of these interactions will pave the way for the development of strategies to improve crop productivity.
Phosphorus is a major macronutrient required for crop production. However, existing crop varieties use less than one-third of applied phosphate fertilizer. Also, there is a risk of a phosphorus crisis, as the worldwide reserves are expected to run out in a few decades. It is, thus, imperative to develop crop varieties that are resilient to phosphate deficiency. My lab is currently investigating how plants regulate phosphate nutrition, aiming to design strategies to develop new crop varieties with efficient phosphate use.
The availability of phosphate in the soil is heterogeneous. Likewise, other nutrients such as nitrogen, zinc, or iron result in combined nutrient stress for the plants. My lab studies how plants respond to multiple nutrient stresses. Solving the mystery of these interactions will pave the way for the development of strategies to improve crop productivity.
The ongoing climatic changes are bound to bring in radical shifts in the levels of atmospheric gases (for example, temperature and CO2, an anthropogenic pollutant), which can jeopardize the nutritional quality and food production. While the photosynthetic rate is enhanced by elevated atmospheric CO2, thereby resulting in increased biomass production, it also catalyzes a general drop in the accumulation of essential plant nutrients, including phosphorus (P). Despite a decline in nutritional status, plants exhibit better growth, which is baffling and counterintuitive. My lab devises ways to improve the nutritional status of crops under elevated CO2 without compromising the final yield.
Finally, nutrient homeostasis is an intricately organized biological process in which plant-derived chemicals, soil minerals, and microbes play critical roles in coordinating plant–soil and plant–microbe interactions. Emerging evidence suggests that deficiency of even a single nutrient affects the accumulation of other elements. Root-associated microbiota optimizes nutrient uptake in plants, especially under limiting conditions, signifying their interactions. Our long-term goal is to uncover the mechanisms of nutrient–nutrient and plant–microbe signaling interactions involved in this process at the systemic level.